You might be able to tell from a lot my recent articles, but I enjoy challenging myself when gaming. Over the year I’ve manged to become better at a lot of genres and titles that used to kick my ass, but one genre in its entirety has eluded me; racing games.

Yes, aside from perhaps Mario Kart, I am possibly the worst racing gamer you’d ever have the displeasure of competing against. I’m not sure what it is; am I handling corners wrong? Shifting improperly? Maybe I don’t understand the true performance of the car. All I know is that I can’t play these games for the life of me.

That is going to change now. I’ve decided to turn my past efforts up 200% and try my absolute hardest to conquer racing games. To do so, I took the crisp $20 I earned from selling textbooks and purchased the one racer with the most content and steepest learning curve; Gran Turismo 4.

Suicidal? Maybe, but at least it gives me plenty of learning material. I’ll try and give you guys an update on my progress in a week’s time. Any tips on how not to suck would also be appreciated.

Update: Using the hints provided by the commentors, I’ve gotten my B license and won a few races. Take that fuckin’ Sunday Cup

Yeah, it’s all about the corners. One good thing that came from the analog buttons was the ability to apply different degrees of pressure with the acceleration. If you have a car with a high weight, low grip to it, you have to be careful when coming out of a corner. Apply too much gas and you will probably understeer right into the dirt. I think if you realize that you will be braking the same amount of time as accelerating, you will do fine. And make sure to hit the license tests. They give you a good sense of how to handle it all. Just remember: always follow the “line.” As you can tell, racing games are my most favirotest genre ever.

christian said on
May 9, 2007:

If its your favoritest Matt, prepare for my barrage of questions. Coming at a later date!

sagexsdx said on
May 9, 2007:

brake BEFORE you turn, not DURING. braking and turning makes you lose friction at a faster rate. position yourself on the outside of the turn before the turn comes (ie if it’s a left turn, go to the right edge of the road), brake before you get to the turn, start turning a bit before the turn actually starts turning, and accelerate out. rinse and repeat

christian said on
May 9, 2007:

so let me ask you all another question; is it bad to try and powerslide in this game? All this advice makes sense and seems practical, but I remember playing the original Gran Turismo and watching some of the replays for each license test, and I remember a lot of powersliding going on. Trouble is, its so damn tough to master, and it doesn’t seem to really help out in a race. Should I even bother with it?

Good God no. This is the game that makes you never want to power slide. You will occasionally do that, but that’s because you probably fucked up the turn, maybe going too fast into it. Ridge Racer this is not, my friend. I’m sure it also degrades your tires faster, and gives your opponents the ability to pass you. You need a consistent speed through the entire turn. No hard stops, and then accelerating.